Predicting the pricing plan

A plan for reducing prescription drug prices slated for release at a White House event next month will highlight HHS Secretary Alex Azar’s aspirations to narrow the gap between net and list prices. It also will seek to remove impediments to value-based contracting, reduce out-of-pocket costs for some Medicare beneficiaries, and intensify FDA’s efforts to sweep aside anticompetitive practices that keep generic and biosimilar drugs off the market.

The plan is a work in progress, but Azar and other senior HHS officials have previewed some of its contents and their underlying ideas in speeches, congressional testimony and background discussions. ...